


you’re a problem but you’re mine (you’re a winner even though you think you’re not)

by gillywulf



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, POV Outsider, Pet Hotel AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-10 00:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11116077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gillywulf/pseuds/gillywulf
Summary: Jason needs a job and PetStay needed him.orThe pet Hotel AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is "not" based on my experience at P*tSmart.

Jason knew that his dad was going to say something he wouldn’t like. The way he sat at the kitchen table and stewed in silence while his two kids sat over a coloring book and his wife looked over some paperwork she’d brought home from the office. He always took longer to speak when the whole family was there, not that it every actually stopped him from saying it. Jason had just taken hold of the red crayon when he opened his mouth. 

“You’ve graduated high school-”

“Thanks”

“-but now- Jay, that wasn’t a congratulations. You’ve graduated and you’re not going to college. What are you going to do?” His mother sighed and pinched her nose. 

“Sam-”

“No, I want to know. Jason, what do you plan to do?” Sam demanded, his voice filling the small kitchen. Jason handed the red crayon to his sister, only for her to reach across him for the pink. 

“I don’t know. Get a job, I guess” he mumbled. He put down the red and scanned for a blue to fill in a section at her instruction. 

“You _guess_? If you don’t have a job in the next two weeks you’re out of the house” His declaration was followed by a beat of silence where everyone looked to see if he was joking. 

“Sam!”

“ _What_? Dad!” Sam just shook his head. 

“Two weeks” he confirmed, getting up from the table and disappearing upstairs. Jason barely noticed his mother chase after him to argue. He barely noticed his little sister gape at him pleadingly. He could only focus on the blue crayon and how he had no idea what he was going to do.

 

~

 

“Welcome aboard!” Jason was a little blown away by the excitement in his new manager’s voice. Alvie was shorter than most men and probably grinned more and wider than most Jason knew. However, he was PetStay’s Hotel manager and he was willingly offering Jason a job, so what did it matter how smoothly he pulled his electronic id card from his pocket while clearly focusing on their conversation? 

“Yeah, thanks” Jason mumbled. The small man was already far ahead, explaining store policy and how the break room was configured. For a non-chain, they seemed to have everything down to a perfect system. Alvie could tell him where every mop in the store was and how long it would take him to clean up a dog’s elimination. It was actually impressive. 

“Here we are!” the manager announced as they arrived at the desk that sat between two large glass rooms, “this is where all the pet parents will check in, for both doggy day care and boarding. You won’t really have to worry about that because that’s Kimberly’s job”

“It’s Kim” The correction startled both of them as a girl appeared from a small room tucked behind one of the glass front rooms. She was drop-dead gorgeous with shoulder-length hair and an expression on her face that made it clear how above the situation she was. Jason was breathless. “Billy’s started on dinner, please don’t mess up his system again”

“Oh, absolutely not, I really shouldn’t have dived in. We’ll just say ‘hi’” Kim shrugged and moved to stand at one of the front desk computers, already forgetting they existed. Alvie didn’t waste any time either, already punching a series of numbers into the code-locked door behind the front desk. “Kimber- er, _Kim_ is very good at her job. She has a 75% add-on addition rate with new pet parents. But don’t let her nice-girl persona fool you. She’s constantly breaking rules with Trini in the back” 

Jason had no idea who Trini was, so he just nodded and listened as Alvie explained about always using the air-lock doors correctly. The doors dropped them into a hallway with a room of kennels on each end and they turned right before Alvie tugged Jason into a small kitchen where a boy was studiously scooping dog food from a container underneath the table. 

“Hey Billy, this is Jason, he’s joining the team!” the manager introduced excitedly. For a long moment, Billy didn’t acknowledge the statement. His focus was on making sure the cup of food was a cup of food, no more no less. He picked off a pellet and dropped it back into the container before grinning at the two new arrivals. 

“Hi, Jason! It’s nice to meet you. We really do need help around here. Whenever Trini and Zack are in camp that leaves just Kim and I do to nail grinds and baths but neither of us like doing those, so they almost never get done on time, so we could really use someone who doesn’t mind being wet with the dogs” Overwhelmed by the sheer number of words coming at him, Jason nodded. 

“Yeah that’s...okay. It’s great to meet you, Billy” The boy gave him one last radiant smile before going back to his work. There were at least thirty dog bowls in front of him, some were paper fast food trays and others hefty metal, clearly meant to last. Only five of them had anything in them. Alvie tugged Jason’s sleeve again.

“You’ll learn about meal-times when you actually start, but here” he extended his arm to reference the massive room, “is where the boarding dogs stay.Anyone who stays overnight is on this side” The tour continued to the other side of the hallway where Alvie pointed out the bathroom, the employee lockers, and the grooming room in quick succession until they entered a smaller room of kennels. 

“These are the day campers. All of them will leave by closing and over here-” he turned left and they were met with four pairs of large eyes staring at them, barely able to clear the top of the low wall, “-is Bigs day camp. And that’s Zack!” Alvie pointed inside the enclosure to the Asian boy who had a definitely too large dog clutched in his arms. “Please put Bently down” 

“He challenged me, as the alpha, I had to respond” Zack shrugged and the Mastiff (Jason had no clue about breeds, who was he kidding?) seemed to peer at them in resignation. 

“He didn’t- oh my god, put him down” Zack complied, but only after a massively exaggerated eye roll. The dog plodded off for a drink of water, unbothered. The boy waded through the cluster of big dogs all watching the new arrivals expectantly. 

“Hey man, I’m Zack. I’m usually in Bigs. Crazy Girl is so small she’d probably get eaten” he laughed.

“I’m Jason” 

“Great to meet you dude. I’d shake your hand but-” he gestured to the bars between them that kept the big dogs from jumping from the enclosure. 

“Yeah, I get it” Jason waved him off in understanding as Alvie directed him to the farther of two glass doors a few feet away. 

“Don’t let Crazy Girl scare you, Sugar’s in today!” Zack laughed as they disappeared into the cramped space. 

“Ignore him,” Alvie muttered, “this is Smalls and that’s Trini” on the other side of the door was another playroom with tiny and mid-size dogs running around, napping or happily chewing on a toy, all while barely coming up to the knee of the small girl who stood grumpily against the wall. At her feet, a tiny dog with black and white hair longer than it’s legs barked constantly at her with it’s high pitched voice. 

“I guess that’s Sugar” Jason mumbled. Alvie nodded. 

“Most of us love Sugar, but I guess when you’re dealing with that for six hours a day, it’s understandable that she’s grumpy, whatever Zack says. Anyway, all small dogs will go here, along with some big dogs like Bard-” he pointed to a greyhound casually strolling around the room, “-who will freak out if they’re with the big buys” Jason nodded, drawing Trini’s attention to the door. He offered an awkward half-wave only for her to turn back to the irritating dog with a deeper scowl. 

So those were his new co-workers.

 

~

 

Seven in the morning was way too early to be up and dealing with other people’s pets but that was what time he was scheduled and Jason wasn’t going to call out of his first day. Or complain. Because that would just give everyone the wrong impression of him. He wasn’t afraid of hard work, he just didn’t want to do it quite so early. 

Kimberly was already at the front computer when he walked in, her navy blue polo looking better on her than it ever could on anyone else. She barely spared him a glance before she spoke. 

“Follow me” she demanded, punching in the door code.

“Yeah okay” Jason jumped into the midway room before it slammed shut in between them. 

“You will always need three things on you at all times; a pen, a lead, and a walkie. Each walkie is color coded and there’s a list of who has which walkie next to the charging station in the kitchen,” she pulled open the second door and stalked off towards said kitchen. Jason made sure to stay on her heels, both because she was talking kind of quietly and walking fast. 

“I’ve got a pen”

“Leads are in the midway room,” the kitchen was empty of food bowls or Billy’s as Jason had last seen it. Kim marched over to the bin of walkies and pointed to a small laminated chart with various dots of color and spaces for a name next to each. Beside pink was Kim’s name, and Zack next to black. “I’m always pink, Trini is yellow, Billy is blue, and Zack is black. Tommy Jr, the overnighter, is usually green, but since he’s not here during the day you can use it if you want. Red and gold are also available” Careful to avoided one of the chosen colors, Jason grabbed one at random.

“I guess I’m red then”

“Great,” Kim took the walkie from his hand and clipped it into the neck v of his uniform polo, “sign off for it” She ducked under the computer in the corner and grabbed a stack of the paper fast food trays, dumping them on the table as two more people entered the room. The girl, Trini, never looked at him as she went directly to Kim and wrapped her arms around her waist and pressed her face in to her back. Kim never even paused. 

“Good morning Jason” Billy grinned in the doorway, somehow very awake and even eager to be there. 

“Hey Billy” Jason twisted the top of the walkie to ‘on’ as he smiled back.

“Okay,” Kim dropped a stack of metal bowls beside the paper ones and placed her hands on Trini’s at her stomach, “Jason, Billy’s going to teach you how to do breakfasts, just an overview so that you’re a little prepared for lunch later and then you’ll do some Individuals with Trini. Individuals are boarding dogs that can’t be in day camp, whether for medical or behavioral reasons usually. Got it?” Jason nodded. “Awesome. C’mon babe, you’re at work now, we can do this later” The front desk manager carefully dragged the girl clinging to her out of the room. 

“Alright, let’s get started!” Billy clapped his hands together, rocking back on his heels, and then dove towards the computer, pressing keys until a long strip of white labels protruded from the tiny printer nearby. He dove in just as eagerly to his explanation, all the while pulling out measuring scoops and pulling the bins of food under the table slightly closer. 

His words came too much, too fast and Jason could barely follow, but he loved it. Billy’s face was lit with a passionate kind of excitement that most people in this job would never have, hell, he was sure he’d never be that excited to feed a whole bunch of other people’s dogs. However, as it didn’t involve too many moving parts, the explanation finished quickly, 

“Thank you, Billy. Do you like working here?” Jason asked, shuffling a small cat-sized bowl off to the side where Billy had put the others. 

“Oh yeah! My mom’s allergic to both cats and dogs so it’s really great to hang with them all day. Also, Zack, Kim, and Trini are all super great and we go out to Krispy Kreme a lot. And no one’s mean about the fact that I’m on the spectrum so, yeah, I really do like it” He flashed Jason a grin. “I’m done now, so you should go do Individuals with Trini” Jason blinked in surprise. 

“Oh, yeah okay. I’ll see you later, okay?”

“See you later, Jason!” Feeling more awake and optimistic than he had entering PetStay, he left the kitchen in search of Trini. Through the massive windows leading to the front desk, he could only see Kim highlighting charts. The small girl who’d buried her face between shoulder blades was no where to be found. 

“Hey, new kid” Jason whirled around and found another playroom in the far corner of the boarding room. Trini stuck her hand through the bars to grab his attention. “We’re in here” He briefly wondered who ‘we’ was, but he’d see soon.

He went through the two doors (there were so many, at what point was overkill?) and was immediately tackled against the wall by 65 pounds of excited dog. The dog was tan with large brown spots and the sweetest face. Jason wasted no time in scratching him behind the ears. 

“Mason, down. Cute huh?” Trini pat the dog’s side once he trotted over to her. 

“Yeah, why is he Individual?” 

“He wants to rip the face off of every dog he meets”

“Oh, okay that makes sense”

“Tommy’s apparently been working with his parents on that but,” she shook her head and Jason noticed for the first time the braids on the side of her head, “I don’t have much faith in that. You’ll see him in a minute” Mason took his time in sniffing around the room. Then, only once he’d found a spot that smelled _just_ so, he dropped into a squat. “Big boy’s a three” she mumbled, pushing off from the wall towards the other corner where a mop, two buckets, and a scoop lay waiting. Mason was back in Jason’s arms. 

“What does that mean?” he asked, trying get the excited dog back down to four feet. 

“Three. Ya know, like, number one and number two? It’s just both” she shrugged as she scooped the poop up and dropped it into one of the buckets. “You write it on the day camp charts too. Zack will show you. Or not, he’s an idiot”

“Oh” They descended into silence. Mason was perfectly happy to go between them for affection or occasionally attack the ball or the playset against the wall. A pop song he’d definitely heard maybe once before played quietly through the speakers and the image of Trini clinging to Kim’s back and the taller girl calling her ‘babe’ would not leave his head. “Can I ask you something?”

“Maybe” she answered without hesitation. He paused. Was that just a no that she didn’t want to say? Her eye roll answered that. “Yeah, ask”

“Are you and Kim dating?” Trini’s whole body shuddered. 

“No” Her jaw tightened and there was definitely more to it than ‘no’. 

“Oh, okay, it’s just- it looked-”

“Stop while you’re ahead, homeboy”

“Got it”

 

~

 

So. Keeping track of 18 big dogs for seven hours a day was harder than Jason thought. And far more exhausting. There were behaviors he had to prevent and stop altogether as well as keeping track of who went to the bathroom and what they did. Zack was helpful, but his attention was so scattered and his disposition so wild that Jason wasn’t sure he trusted Zack not to fight with a dog.

It was a new feeling to have. 

Dead on his feet and ready for a massive dinner, he dragged himself to the front employee room to clock out. Zack grabbed his shoulder halfway there. 

“Hey man, you want to celebrate your first day at Krispy Kreme?” he offered. Zack’s already disheveled hair looked downright messy after the dogs had their way with it. Molly alone, a young lab, could have been the cause with how much she loved licking ears. 

“Sure, if you want to pay. I haven’t got  paycheck yet” Zack slung his arm over his shoulder. 

“Yeah, pastries on me!” Thankfully, Krispy Kreme was only on the other side of the shopping complex from PetStay, so the walk was mercifully short, especially with the summer heat beginning to set in. 

Zack spent the whole walk babbling about the dogs, the ones he loved, the ones he hated, and the ones that were plain odd, like Nero, a wall-eyed and pigeon-toed chocolate lab that never stopped smiling. Apparently he’d slammed a Boston terrier so hard that the smaller dog could only be Individual from that point on. 

Trini had apparently pissed herself laughing. 

And then promptly helped Kim take the terrier to the vet. 

Jason liked the expressive way Zack talked. He used his whole body to tell a story, his hands, his shoulders, his face and his voice. He was so excited to talk about the dogs and the friends he’d made tending to them, just like Billy. It gave Jason hope that he might one day be the same. 

The doughnut shop was thankfully not busy as the two of them ordered. As promised, Zack slid a few bucks across the counter to cover both doughnuts and coffees. Jason privately wondered if Zack needed more caffeine with his ingrained energy, but he didn’t know him well enough to judge. 

“So what are you doing at PetStay man? You don’t look like you should work there” Zack asked as they slid into a booth. Jason shrugged. 

“I did something stupid, lost any chance at college, and found myself in immediate need of a job” He kept his eyes down and took a sip to cover his embarrassed cheeks. Normally he wouldn’t be ashamed, but when he said it like that, it sounded a little pathetic. 

“Oh that’s cool, I didn’t even graduate high school. Maybe you’ll get there. I’m here because I wanted a pet dog and this is a lot cheaper,” he grinned sharply and Jason laughed at the joke, “also my mom is sick and we’ve gotta find a way to pay for meds on top of you know, everything else. Trini’s been a great help on her days off. My mom likes her more than me probably” Jason frowned. 

“Really? She seems kinda...”

“Oh, she’s absolutely mean as hell. But once you get past the rough exterior, she’s all mush. Just catch her with Kim or Billy. She loves them. And her kid brothers” They paused to take identical too-large bites of their doughnuts. They caught sight of the other with bits hanging out of their mouth and burst into laughter, careful not to choke on what they hadn’t swallowed (well, maybe only in Jason’s case). 

“Can I ask you something?” Jason began after a long sip and a calming breath. Zack nodded and shoved the rest of his doughnut into his mouth. “what’s up with Kim and Trini? I mean, Trini said they weren’t dating but, I don’t know” Zack nodded along and brushed his hands free of crumbs before speaking. 

“Yeah, they’re not dating, but they are going to be”

“How do you know that?” That seemed to be a very hard thing to know with such certainty. 

“They told me. Not at the same time, though. Trini was little drunk and Kim was just getting done with the literal worst day someone could have that Trini helped pick her up from. Trini could be ready at the drop of a hat if it weren’t for the fact that she’s scared what her parents would think since they’ve definitely said some shitty stuff about her questionable sexuality”

“They don’t like it?” Zack shook his head. 

“Nah, every time I’m over, they ask if we’re dating yet. It’s why she’s at mine a lot. I think Kim is scared by the inevitability of it all. From the moment they met, there’s been this crazy connection that you’d have to be oblivious to miss. Billy may have trouble with social stuff, but even he got that right away. She said something like, she’s scared by the fact that she knows she’s not going to ever want someone after Trini. We have a store pool on when they get their shit together, you want in?” he asked, downing the last of his coffee. 

“How long have they known each other?” Jason narrowed his eyes. 

“This has been going on for three years”

“Oh, okay, fuck no”

 

~

 

“ _Red, you nearly done that bath_?” Jason shook his feet in a poor attempt to make them dry faster. He sent Winnie the Newfoundland a withering glare. 

“Are you happy?” He sighed and punched the talk button on his walkie. “Yes pink, just getting her into the drier. Do you need something?”

“ _Yeah, you’ve got some safety videos to watch. The answers to the multiple choice questions are already written down, so it shouldn’t take long_ ” 

“Great, I’ll be there in a sec” Winnie was hardly cooperative, but eventually Jason maneuvered her into a kennel dryer with the hope that she could be ready to go sometime in the next four hours. Up front, Kim was typing away at her computer and scribbling names and room numbers onto ID bands. She didn’t turn at the sound of the door opening and closing behind her. 

“Just put log in and take the quiz listed at the top. The answer key is-” she froze. “Fuck” Kim rarely looked so affected. Jason immediately felt his heart jump into his throat with worry. 

“Kim? are you okay?” She ignored him and marched over to the window where Smalls was easily in view. Most of the small dogs had found a comfortable place to nap and calm down while a few small puppies rolled around with each other, nipping at heels and necks. The main point of interest however, was Trini, sunk to the floor with her back tot he wall and her head fallen into her arms. A black Maltese pawed continuously at her forearms. 

“Fuck,” she raised her walkie, “Yellow babe, can you stand? Just a minute please. Blue, do you mind going into smalls to give yellow a break?” They watched Trini raise a thumbs up while they waited for Billy to radio in. 

“ _Yeah_! _Is it country music time_?”

“Yes it is. You’re a saint”

“ _That’s very nice of you Kim, thank you_ ” They watched as the door to the relief room opened and closed, and the door to Smalls did the same, allowing Billy into the room and waking all of the dogs. They swarmed him like insects to a fruit left unattended in the middle of summer and Trini wasted no time in handing off the squirt bottle, offering him her most sincere thanks, and sneaking out of the room. Kim sighed in relief. 

“She likes metal and despises country music. But between that and silence, she’ll choose the music. So she’ll sit there dying. Thankfully Billy loves country, so we stick him in for country music power hour” she explained, heading towards the midway room. 

“Does this happen a lot?” Jason watched the dogs jump as high up as they could (never above Billy’s knees) to try and lick their new supervisor’s face. 

“Country music power hour is every day at 1. I’m going to go talk to her” Kim wasted no time in punching in the door code and slipping through. Jason shook his head, turning slowly back to the computer quiz with a warm feeling in his chest. It felt like the beginnings of fondness. It took less than five minutes to log in and click the correct answers and no brain-power at all, so he went to the back rooms in an attempt to find Kim and ask what she wanted him to do next. 

He found her by the employee lockers, her back to him. He opened his mouth to speak but froze. She wasn’t alone. There, crowded between Kim’s body and the side of the lockers was Trini. Kim’s hands rested over her jawline, her thumbs moving slowly over Trini’s hairline, and the full length of their bodies were clearly pressed together. Kim’s nose traced slow, delicate lines across Trini’s face, and the small girl was the most relaxed Jason had ever seen her. The phone in Kim’s back pocket played a slow soft song that clearly meant something to the both of them with the way they swayed so gently back and forth that it almost looked like they weren’t moving at all. 

It was like a scene from a dramatic romance movie. 

He wasn’t meant to see this. 

Jason careful backed away and decided to do a water check. Those were always necessary and needed. As he worked, he felt the feeling in his chest grow. The _beginnings_ of fondness were clearly out the window.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: There is a dog bite in the fifth section.

It turned out that prepping for mealtimes wasn’t as hard as Jason initially thought. Like Billy, he’d needed to develop a system before it made sense, but eventually, once he’d started separating the labels stating the dog’s name and food into dry and wet, the process went far quicker. He was midway through preparing dinners when the door to the kitchen slammed open and a middle aged man with neat, short hair. He stopped short at the sight of Jason. 

“Who are you?” Blunt. Jason held out his hand. 

“Hi, I’m Jason. I’m new. Ish” The man takes his hand and it’s surprisingly gentle. 

“Tommy Oliver. I’m the trainer here and my kid works the night shift” Jason remembered the walkie chart with Tommy Junior written next to green and nodded. 

“Oh yeah, I haven’t met him yet” An odd look crossed Tommy’s face. 

“Uh, Tommy Junior is-”

“Tommy! What up, dude?” Zack’s boisterous voice filled the small kitchen, shoving whatever the trainer was going to say out of their minds. “I haven’t seen you in like, two weeks” He set down the stack of used dog bowls and spread his arms, offering a warm hug. Tommy was clearly uncomfortable. 

“Good to see you, Zack. Oh, whoops, I have class in two minutes. Nice to meet you, Jason” He slipped from the room with a quick wave. 

“I can _not_ figure out why he doesn’t like me” Zack mumbled, perching his hands on his hips. The whole image - the confused face, the posture, the situation he’d just witnessed - as truly a masterpiece. Jason laughed. 

“Never change, man”

 

~

 

“Have a nice day” Kim beamed at the pet parent until they rounded the corner out of eye sight. She dropped her falsely peppy face instantly and rolled her eyes to Jason. “‘I ordered a nail trim and a suite!’ They did neither so he got neither. I literally hate people. They over feed and under care and get upset at _me_ when they’re the one who messed up” she huffed, turning back to the computer and tapping in last minute pay information. He laughed. 

“I mean you’re not wrong, but that’s like all retail” 

“Doesn’t mean I can’t still hate them”

“That’s fair,” he shrugged, “you get off in five minutes too, right? Do you want to go to Krispy Kreme with me and my little sister? My mom’s dropping her off in a bit” Kim twisted the watch on her wrist and shrugged. 

“Sure. I bet she’s funnier than you”

“Says the girl who literally can’t make a joke that gets anyone laughing” She scowled and crossed her arms.

“I will have you know, I am _very_ funny”

“No, I think Pearl will definitely be funnier than both of us”

 

~

 

The dog squirmed and wriggled with all its might, crying all the while. The high pitched squeals were definitely starting to hurt Jason’s ears. None of it was helping the nail grind get done any faster. He stepped back with a resigned sigh and punched the talk button on his walkie. 

“Red could use some help with a nail grind” The dog leveled him with her best pleading stare. Maybe if she looked sad enough, he would stop. 

“ _Blue to the rescue_!” Billy’s voice announced over the radio. Less than a minute later, the boy strolled in and took a firm hold of the dog’s body. Thankfully, it was enough for Jason to finally get a full paw done with the promise of stillness for the rest. He quickly moved on to the next paw. If she wasn’t going to stay this calm long, he needed to be fast. 

“Billy, you are an absolute lifesaver” Why did dogs need to much hair over their feet? It just made everything harder and slightly more dangerous. He could get it stuck in the grinder and pull out a chunk if he wasn’t careful. 

“My pleasure, Jason. Hey, do you think I’m weird?” Jason stilled, stopped the grinder, and straightened to look Billy dead in the eye. 

“I’ve seen Zack eat a burger off the ground even though the bun fell off”

“No, I know- I mean, yeah, that’s kinda weird, but I mean like, you know-”

“Did something happen?” he asked. Concern clawed its way up his throat and the dog sat happily on the table between them, clearly believing she was out of the woods. Billy looked hesitant for a moment.

“I brought Summer up to her mom and I was really excited because we don’t really get all that many Corgis, so I was telling her neat history about their breed, like ‘corgi’ means ‘dwarf-dog’ in Welsh where they originated from and because they are herders, they are the same type of dog that huskies are, which no one really expects because they are so different. And she looked at me like a lot of people do when I start to talk a lot, like there must be something definitely wrong with me” His hold on the dog slackened, his hands instead stroking along her side.

“Billy,” Jason wanted _so_ badly to lay his hand on Billy’s shoulder, to really draw his attention, but he knew his friend didn’t like to be touched, so he reigned himself in, “you are the kindest, smartest, most caring person I know. Hands down. Having a diagnosis doesn’t make you weird, it’s another part of who you are, just like your love of country music” Billy smiled at that and Jason accepted the small victory. “One rude lady isn’t going to change any of the awesome things about you. Don’t ever forget that” Billy’s eyes shone and it looked like he might even cry. Jason wouldn’t be able to stop himself from following if that was going to happen. 

“Thank you, Jason”

“Honestly any time. Thank you for coming to me. Now let’s get her finished up, okay?”

 

~

 

It was almost funny watching Trini try and hold back such a fat chocolate lab. Tucker was definitely not built to easy walking. 

“Fuck you, dick! Stop pulling!” She grit her teeth and dug in her heels, but it was no use. Tucker was headed to camp at his own pace. “You wanna help at all?” she shot back to Jason behind her. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I have to keep holding Gus to make sure he doesn’t kill anyone. You know, because he’s so lethal” Gus was in fact a toy fox terrier, shaking constantly and peeing himself in fear as Jason spoke. 

“ _Dick_ , Tucker, _stop_!” Kim chose that moment to step into the hallway from the relief room. She calmly took in the scene; Trini being pulled by an overexcited fat dog and Jason, with his tiny shaking mess. With a roll over her eyes, she reached out and jerked Tucker’s lead in a direction he wasn’t expecting, surprising him enough to get him to stop. 

“Tuck, walk nice” she demanded. “If he keeps doing it, just stop and wait for him to settle. He needs to learn not to pull” Her eyes bore into Trini’s and even from his not great angle, Jason could see how struck Trini was. The girl’s eyes didn’t move away once Kim headed to the grooming room. 

“You good?” he asked, almost concerned. 

“Fuck, she’s so hot”

 

~

 

When things were busy, things were _busy_. Jason barely had a moment to breathe between shuffling dogs into their rooms, cleaning, juggling dogs in camp, and a whole host of other duties. 

“ _Red, I need Maximus when you have a moment; he’s going home_ ” Kim’s steady voice broke through his dinner prep concentration. He sighed. He was never going to get anything done. 

“Sure, pink” He left the kitchen and speed walked to where he knew Maximus the giant yellow lab would be waiting by the kennel door, his tongue lolling out and his tail wagging non-stop. Sure enough, that was the sight that greeted him. The dog was clearly excited to go home, if the way he pulled at his leash was any indicator. His owners beamed and hugged him while obliviously clogging up the reception area. But of course, there was no time to stand there and wonder whether or not it was just a little _too_ much, another family stood waiting to say goodbye to their German Shepard. 

“Jason, could you please take Grant to 211? Thank you” Kim was already staring back to paperwork, highlighting on a chart the days certain services were being received. 

“Sure,” he smiled politely to the family and slipped a lead over Grant’s head, his other hand extended for the leash, “I can take him, have a great day” Grant followed him easily to the door and through it, all the way to the door of kennel 211 where he promptly planted his feet and refused to move. “Bud, c’mon, I need to finish the lunches”

The pleading must have worked, because the dog gave in just enough to allow himself to be guided inside the kennel. Jason knelt to pull his lead and unclip the collar. Grant seized the moment. He shot out from under Jason’s knee in a desperate bid to escape. Jason did nothing but act on instinct. His hand shot out just as fast and _just_ managed to grab a hold of Grant’s paper ID band. 

The ID band around his neck.

While all Jason could think was to beg higher powers to keep the ID band in tact long enough for his to slip the lead back over his head, Grant wanted nothing more than to be away from him. So he rolled onto his back and turned his head to take Jason’s hand into his mouth and bit. Hard. 

For a long second Jason didn’t even register what had happened. He was so focused on holding on that his brain excused the bite like that from a puppy, painful, but only for a second and completely harmless. That is, until his brain caught up with the sheer _pain_ and the sight of blood. Needless to say, he let go. 

Grant took off out of Jason’s view. His hand was mangled, that was the only word he could associate with the way it looked. He must not have registered Grant’s frenzied shaking like a chew toy he was on the other end of. He tried to make a fist and failed. 

“Hey Jason, what’s taking- _holy shit_ ” Trini wasted no time. She marched over to him and took the hand in hers. She whipped the grey beanie from her head and wrapped it as tightly around it as possible. “Keep this tight, you need pressure,” she tugged on her walkie, “birdhouse” she said simply before pushing him off towards the kitchen. “Go wait there. I’ll get him in the kennel and we’ll take you to the hospital” 

Jason blinked in awe at her take-charge attitude, but managed a weak nod. She was gone in the blink of an eye, her tiny voice gruff and furious as she called out Grant’s name. He definitely heard an aggressive ‘ass-fucker’ as he headed towards the kitchen. 

Billy was already there, gauze and light antiseptics at the ready. He was so _careful_ and _gentle_ and Jason was eternally grateful, he just wished his head was clearer to express that appreciation. He’d do that later when he wasn’t bleeding profusely. Kim burst into the room just as the cleaning stage finished. She did a quick examination before motioning to Billy to continue. 

“We’ve already called Grant’s parents. They were only in the parking lot and he’ll be refused for the rest of the month. Okay, _wow_ that’s a lot of blood. Trini’s going to drive you to the hospital because Billy can’t drive, Zack’s stuck in camp, and I have to man the front desk. She’s usually a good driver, I promise” Before Jason had long enough to process the statement and ask what _exactly_ she meant by that, Trini swept into the room and grabbed his bicep. 

“C’mon, homeboy,  let’s get you to the hospital before you bleed out” The next few minutes are a whirlwind of racing out the store in an attempt not to alarm customers and to reach the hospital as quickly as possible. Kim’s ‘usually’ begins to make sense on the highway. Trini darts her car into small spaces and slams on the brakes and accelerator so often that Jason began to worry a heart attack might kill him before his hand. 

There was something incredibly calming about her hard demeanor cracking only enough for her worry to trickle out in barely-there ways, like the way her eyes constantly darted over to him, or the way her hands tightened over and over on the steering wheel. Maybe she _did_ like him. He’d like to be friends. 

 

~

 

Jason wordlessly held out the tray of steaming coffee cups while trying very hard not to chug from his own. With a small sigh of relief, Kim took the tray and then the cup marked with her name.

“Zack’s running late” she mumbled after a long sip. Jason laughed.

“Some day, someone who’s not us will realize and he’ll get fired” 

“Let’s hope not. We’re still super understaffed”

“Good thing I’m here, right?” The two whirled around to find a girl with closely cropped hair and a grin too bright for the early hour standing on the other side of the front desk, already in the customary PetStay navy polo. Jason and Kim shot one another confused glances. 

“Uh, I’m sorry to ask, but who are you? I only have one person for training on my list today” Kim thumbed through her schedule post-it notes, looking for any name she didn’t recognize. 

“That’s probably me. I’m Tj” she beamed. Jason couldn’t help but notice the startlingly bright green eyes she had. Kim didn’t stop frowning. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t see a ‘Tj’ anywhere” Tj seemed to sag at that. 

“Is there a ‘Tommy Jr’?”  Her entire body deflated with the question with a resignation so bone deep that Jason thought she might just collapse under the weight of it. Kim blinked dumbly. 

“Yes”

“That’s me”

“No it isn’t” Tj rolled her eyes and dug around in her back pocket for a moment until she produced a drivers’ license, complete with her picture and ‘Tommy Oliver Jr.’ printed beside it.

“My dad’s the trainer here. I’m the overnighter. I’m transferring to day shift. I’m Green” Even though the evidence was nothing short of indisputable, Kim’s face couldn’t free itself of the bafflement she felt. Thankfully, Zack chose that moment to sprint up to the counter and diffuse the tension. 

“Guys, I’m sorry I’m late-”

“Zack, this is Tj, bring her into Bigs with you” He swiveled on his heel and froze. Jason watched as his face got progressively redder with each passing second. 

“Hi- er, hello. Welcome to PetStay. I will be your trainer, or uh, senior, today,” he stopped his rambling, “let’s load up” He shuffled awkwardly to the back with Tj on his heels. Jason took a slow sip from his coffee and leaned against the counter. 

“He likes her”

“Two _damn_ seconds in”

“He also forgot his coffee”

 

~

 

On days where there were only enough dogs for one camp, everyone seemed to mill around aimlessly, trying to find something, _anything_ to do. Jason knew that Zack was having plenty of fun in camp, but Trini, Kim, and Billy would all be restless, not to mention himself. 

Jason decided to do a little tidying in the grooming room, picking up and throwing out old ID bands, sweeping up shed fur, and bringing dirty, wet towels to the laundry room. Maybe he’d even throw a load or two in. Between beds, blankets, and towels, there was almost definitely enough. 

He hefted the pile of wet towels into his arms (while attempting to keep them from soiling his shirt) and march near-blind to the laundry room. Of course, it could never be that simple. He couldn’t just walk in an do his job. 

Instead, he was greeted by Kim pressing the full length of her body into Trini, hands wandering and lips moving as one, together. 

Of course he had to walk in on them making out. He was happy for them, naturally, but he didn’t need to keep seeing the PDA. Especially when _Trini’s hand was definitely undoing the unbutton on the front of Kim’s pants_. 

Jason turned on his heel and dumped the towels into a nearby cart. He had to stop himself from sprinting to the kitchen. When he walked in, Billy looked up from the dishes and smiled, perpetually happy to see him. The long purple rubber gloves were pulled up to his elbows to keep his hands from feeling all of the left-over food residue. 

“So,” Jason began, leaning against the sink, “don’t go into the laundry room, okay?” Billy’s face scrunched up in confusion. 

“Why?”

“Kim and Trini are...you know” He gestured vaguely in the hopes that he wouldn’t have to _say_ it.

“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking” Jason sighed and scrubbed his face, maybe it would dislodge the discomfort.

“Just trust me, you don’t want to go in there for a while. Maybe an hour, just to be safe” Billy’s confusion and suspicion didn’t disappear.

“I trust you”

“Thank you, Billy” The two of them spent the next fifty minutes filling the time, talking about the dogs, the cats, the store, and their co-workers. It was pleasant when Jason’s mind didn’t wander to why they were doing that and not something else.

Kim and Trini stumbled into the room, looking far too disheveled and satisfied. Their grins were too wide and their limbs too loose. Jason crossed the room and laid a hand on each of their shoulders. 

“Well,” he really meant the excited smile he gave them, “congratulations guys, but not here, please. I beg you”

 

~

 

District management almost never made in store appearances. Those were reserved for big changes, good news, or bad news. As the entire store was crowded together after hours, Jason couldn’t help but fear the latter. Alvie clapped his hands together for the crowd’s attention. 

“Excuse me, thank you everyone for showing up tonight” Zack nudged Jason in the ribs. 

“Wasn’t this mandatory?” They sniggered together as Alvie plowed on.

“I want to take the time to thank each and every one of you for your time and dedication into this store” He took a long pause to try and make eye contact with as many people as possible. “However, I regret to tell you all that our store will be closing at the end of the month” 

A chorus of gasps, sighs, and groans filled the air and Jason, between fish tanks and dog harnesses, felt his heart break. Alvie continued to talk about what the chain will do for them as if it could measure up to what it would provide if it stayed open. The rest of the meeting went by in a daze. He barely took in more than three consecutive words.

The hotel staff lingered in the parking lot, no one quite sure what do do or say. And Jason had come to a conclusion that these people were his friends, no matter what happened next. He loved the big way Zack felt everything. He loved Billy’s never ending affection. He loved the quiet way Trini expressed her protectiveness. He loved the simplicity of Kim’s humor. 

He loved them. Even when he was scooping poop.

“So this sucks” Trini mumbled once they were alone on the pavement. Kim, her arm around the smaller girl’s shoulders, hummed in agreement. 

“What the hell are we going to do? I want to keep hanging out with you guys. Forget trying to get someone else to hire me” Zack ruffled his hair and Billy laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

“What if we all applied at the same place? There’s another PetStay a few miles away. If we don’t all get it, we apply somewhere else. I know it feels like it right now, but it isn’t the end, not by a lot, okay? We’re blue,” he gestured to Billy, “black,” then to Zack, “pink, yellow,” Kim and Trini stood a little straighter, “and red. Take us or leave us” His breathing was labored by the end, but his heart felt big and hopeful. Kim snorted and ducked her head. 

“You’re such a nerd. Come on Mr. Leader. Let’s go to Krispy Kreme you guys. I could use some sugar” She threw her other arm over his shoulders, even though it was a bit of a stretch with his height. He shook his head but extended his own arm to Billy, who after a quick deliberation nodded and pulled Zack close. 

“ _I’m_ the nerd. _You_ play Pokemon Go every day”

“Holy fuck, really? What team are you?”

“Zack, you know it _literally_ does not matter, right?”

“Actually, there have been studies about what the choice says about people, Trini”

“I didn’t know that, B. Tell us about it”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to write a specific au with no plot. Thanks for letting me.


End file.
